Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Today we've seen the Gospel.
Our Lord arrives at the city of Nain,
just outside the gates.
And as He arrives, there's a funeral procession.
And they're carrying the beer with the body of the widow's son.
And the widow, the mother, is in great sorrow.
And our Lord notices and is moved to mercy.
As they say, there's probably no greater sorrow
that a human person can experience
than a mother who loses her son.
And so here, we have a mother who loses her son,
and it's her only son.
And she's also a widow.
She's already lost her husband.
So we can imagine the extent of her sorrow was enormous.
And so our Lord is moved to mercy at the site.
And being moved to mercy,
He chooses to work this miracle,
to raise the boy from the dead,
and to give him back to his mother.
Now we see in this Gospel,
the widow, the woman, the mother,
she's a figure in two ways.
She's a figure, first of all,
of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
our mother of sorrows,
who herself was a widow,
Saint Joseph having already died
at the moment of the crucifixion,
and being a widow, having lost her son
in the most cruel manner.
And now Our Lady,
being immaculate,
her heart being full of grace,
and having an immaculate nature,
was more sensitive, of course,
than any other mother.
And so she felt this sorrow
more than any other mother could.
Furthermore, the sorrow felt
normally corresponds to the degree of love.
And no one loved,
there is no mother who has loved her son
as Our Lady loved hers.
And Our Lady loved her son
not only as a natural son,
but also as her God.
And so when we consider
the sorrow in Our Lady's heart,
again, it's unimaginable.
We can't imagine.
That's the sword that pierced Our Lady's heart.
And so God the Father,
having looked upon His beloved daughter,
had mercy.
And as the Gospel says today,
and He gave Him to His mother,
raised His only begotten Son from the dead,
and gave Him back to His mother.
As tradition holds,
Our Lord first appeared
to the Blessed Virgin Mary
after His resurrection,
and gave that first joy
to her immaculate heart.
Now the second way
in which this woman is a figure
is she's a figure of the Church as well.
The Church who is in great sorrow,
Holy Mother Church,
in great sorrow at seeing
her dead sons and daughters.
It is those children of hers
who are living in mortal sin.
And so the Church cries out
and intercedes
for those sons and daughters
who are in sin.
And Our Lord
has mercy
at seeing that sorrow
and that lamentation
and that intercession.
And so then He goes and touches those souls
with His grace,
enlightening their minds,
enabling them to see
the misery of their own state,
moving their hearts
towards a sincere contrition
and repentance,
and eventually
bringing them back to life again,
infusing His grace once again
into their soul
and giving them back to Mother Church
to serve the Church
in a meritorious way.
And so today we give thanks
for Holy Mother Church
who intercedes for us,
all of her sinful children,
dearly,
and obtains grace for us
that we may have
supernatural life
and continue
in our service of her.
In the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.